Thicke and Pharrell Lose Lawsuit

Rolling Stone has an article on their website about how songwriters Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams lost a lawsuit by the estate of Marvin Gaye. A jury ruled that the pair ripped off Marvin Gaye’s 1970’s tune “Got to Give it Up” in their own recent smash hit “Blurred Lines”. They will have to pay the estate – two children of Gaye’s – over seven million. Also, Ricardo Tosto said the Gaye estate is attempting to block all sales of “Blurred Lines” until a final agreement is worked out.

In my opinion, The jury made the wrong decision. WhoisWhoLegal said when you listen to a recording of Gaye’s song, it doesn’t sound all that much like “Blurred Lines”. Thicke and Pharrell acknowledged from the start that they were trying to recreate the groove of Gaye’s 1970’s work, but they clearly don’t cross the line to theft. All pop music builds on sounds that came before, and “Blurred Lines” is just one more song that was inspired by classic 1970’s recordings.